By Earthshine Software

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FAQ

1. Will Dashcam Viewer work with my dashcam?

The only models I have tested against are listed on the dashcamviewer.com home page. Other models may or may not work.

If your dashcam movies do not play in DCV or you don’t see any GPS data displayed, I may be able to make it work — if you help me. You’ll need to send me a ‘clone’ or zip of your camera’s SD card disk image. The clone should contain at least 3 movies and associated GPS data files. The file/folder structure of the clone must be preserved. For example, the Mini 0801 stores its movie and GPS data like so:

3. When I play a 1440p movie on my Windows computer the screen is black, but I see the GPS data.

This issue affects some Windows PC owners who have Viofo A119 dashcams, as well as some other dashcams that support movie resolutions greater than 1080p. Not every PC is affected. It stems from a limitation in the 3rd party video library used in the Windows version of Dashcam Viewer and unfortunately there’s not a lot I can do about it right now although I’m looking into the issue. The workaround is to lower the resolution of the dashcam to 1080p. This fixes the issue for the Viofo A119/S, Mini 0803, 0805, 0806, and a number of other “SuperHD” dashcams.

If you still can’t see the movie playing in the Player Window…

Are you running on a multi-monitor system? Try running Dashcam Viewer on the main monitor only.

[Mac] If your dashcam creates AVI movies the Mac may not have the codecs required to play the movies. Try downloading and installing Flip4Mac Player which allows Macs to play AVI movies.

[Windows] Make sure that your video card is compatible with OpenGL 2.1 or greater and that your video drivers are up to date.

[Windows] Dashcam Viewer does not work well when being run in a virtual environment. Avoid running on Windows VMs.

[Windows] Are you running Windows 7? This is not a recommended OS for Dashcam Viewer. Windows 10 is preferable but if you stick with Windows 7 you may have better luck by installing the k-lite codec pack, which adds additional movie codecs to your Win7 installation: See http://www.codecguide.com/download_k-lite_codec_pack_standard.htm

4. The Google Maps option no longer shows my vehicle’s current position or route.

Yep, I noticed this too and am working to understand the issue. As far as I can tell, on or around Feb 14, 2018 Google changed something with their Map service which prevents the Mac version of Dashcam Viewer from drawing anything on top of the map (markers, routes, etc.). Interestingly this only affects the Mac version– the Windows version works nominally. I have a beta version of Mac Dashcam Viewer in progress, which uses a different architecture for accessing the web services. It works well with Google Maps. So in the future, this won’t be an issue. But for now, please use the Mapquest Map option. Sorry for the inconvenience.

5. After I download the Windows version from your website and run the setup.exe, I get an warning saying “SmartScreen prevented an unrecognized app from starting”. What do I do?

On Win8.1 click on More Info to reveal the “Run Anyway” button. Click the Run Anyway button and the install will proceed. There is probably an equivalent override option in Win7.

6. Why can’t I see my Map window?

Sometimes the windows obscure each other. Try selecting the Map window from the Windows menu of Dashcam Viewer and it should be brought to the forefront.

7. Why doesn’t Dashcam Viewer work with the DOD LS460W or Nextbase 402G?

I would love to support the DOD Tech LS460W and the Nextbase 402G! But some dashcam models, like these two, embed their GPS data into the movie file in a proprietary way. Without data format information from the manufacturer, decoding the GPS data is very difficult. I believe both the LS460W and 402G encoded their GPS data using the same method.

I’ve tried to contact DOD Tech (info@dod-tec.co) but they never responded. I also reached out to Nextbase (sales@nextbase.co.uk). They responded with a “we’ll get back to you” and that was it. Perhaps if enough DOD Tech or Nextbase customers contact them they would be more forthcoming.

8. I have a Viofo A119. The movies play fine but I don’t see any GPS data in the Map or Graphs. What’s going on?

I have heard this complaint from a dozen A119 customers so far. I have examined sample movie files provided to me and have determined that there is no GPS data written into the movie file. Here are hex dumps of the movie file where the GPS data is supposed to be in sample movies produced by two different A119 dashcams. Only the A119 on the right is correctly writing data into the movie file.

This A119 is NOT working correctly. It is not embedding GPS data into the movie file.

This A119 is working correctly and saving GPS data to the movie file.

A number of A119 owners have corrected the problem by downgrading the firmware from 2.01 to 2.0. In one case the vendor (SpyTech) exchanged the customer’s A119 for a new one. Presumably this fixed the problem. If you send me a sample movie I can examine it to see if it has this problem.

This popular dashcam is not “officially” supported. The way the DDPai M6+ manipulates files and stores GPS data on the card is unique among dashcam manufacturers. They store some of their GPS data in a folder called “103gps” although some folks had their GPS data in a folder called “203gps”. Furthermore, not all the GPS data is in these folders. Some of it is stored in an archive format and is dearchived by the dashcam when needed. So the state of files on the SD card is always in flux. Sadly, DDPai does not seem interested in supporting the desktop community and instead focuses on smartphone users. In a recent post in a dashcam forum DDPai states, “our products were designed to connect to smartphone for pictures and video sharing on social community, and we built our own community to make more fun to use our social car dvr, rather than just recorder.”

That said, Dashcam Viewer will look for DDPai “gpx” files in the 103gps and 203gps directories. So as long as there are filename-matching gpx files in the 103gps or 203gps folders then the DDPai M6+ is “unofficially supported” in Windows Dashcam Viewer. Unfortunately, the MP4 movie format they use is not compatible with the QuickTime Player 7 library so the movies don’t play in the Mac version of Dashcam Viewer.

I’ve had the opportunity to examine Garmin Dashcam movies in a binary file editors as well as a couple of movie player apps. I was not able to locate the GPS tag information in the file. I’m not surprised — Garmin is good at hiding and encoding their GPS data. I’d need help from the Garmin engineers to locate and decode the GPS data. Until then there’s not much I can do.

11. My dashcam’s movies don’t play in the Mac version of Dashcam Viewer. Why?

The Mac version of Dashcam Viewer uses the same video backend as QuickTime Player 7 (not Quicktime Player 10). Although the reasons are not clear, a few dashcam manufacturers produce MP4 movies that are not compatible with QuickTime Player 7 (and therefore, not Mac Dashcam Viewer). These dashcams include DDPai M6+, Thinkware F750/F770, and Garmin DC20. Unfortunately, there’s not much I can do I my end to remedy the situation other than switching the video backend (something I’m contemplating). UPDATE: Dashcam Viewer 3 uses a new video backend and should now be compatible with the Thinkware F750/F770.

12. I would like to run Dashcam Viewer on my Mac and PC. Do I need to buy two licenses?

Yes, each platform is a separate purchase. Developing and maintaining two “separate but more-or-less equal” versions is actually quite challenging and time-consuming.

13. I’m using a Mac and when I try to run your software the first time I get a message like this:

Mac’s Gatekeeper is blocking DCV from running. You need to temporarily adjust your Security & Privacy settings. Go to your System Preferences and select Security & Privacy. Then choose “Anywhere” for “Allow applications downloaded from:”. After you run DCV the first time successfully you can switch your Security&Privacy settings back.

In the Applications folder that opens, click the application’s icon so it is highlighted.

Choose Get Info from the File menu.

Place a checkmark next to “Open in Low Resolution” to enable Low Resolution mode.

Close the window and double click the Application to reopen it.

15. When I use the “Export Clip” feature I don’t hear audio in the exported clip.

This is a rare issue but the customer who had this problem reported that it only occurred if the clip was played in Quicktime Player. The audio was heard correctly if the clip was played in VLC or the clip was uploaded to YouTube.

16. I just downloaded/purchased DashCam Viewer for my new PowerUCC Panorama-G camera and noticed something odd. All the “extra windows” (map, graph, Data Display Window) are running about 30-seconds AHEAD of the actual video.

The problem is that the dashcam’s internal clock is not set to the correct time. This issue was confirmed by comparing the displayed clock time in the movie to the time captured by the GPS. Please make sure the camera’s internal clock is synced to GPS time.

17. I have a Mini 0803 or Mini 0805. Why can’t I see my video in the Main Window?

Previously I had a chance to investigate the Advanced Car Eye dashcam and it does some tricky things. First of all, it combines both front and rear movie track into a single movie file. I’ve only seen this done with one other dashcam, the VisionDrive 9600. The media library software I use with my software does not allow me to separate both tracks. So for the VD dashcam I actually had to write them a pre-processor program that separates the tracks into two movie files. Very complicated for the user. The second problem is that your GPS data is encoded in a proprietary method within the movie file itself. Many times the GPS data is encoded in the movie subtitle stream, but not in this case. Without help from the manufacturer it is extremely difficult to decode.

As a former MINI and 328i owner I would have liked to have made this dashcam work, but I’m afraid it’s got me beat—for now.

19. I have a Panorama X2 with front and rear cameras. How do I view both movies simultaneously in picture-in-picture mode on my Mac?

This mode is supported in DCV v1.6.3 and higher. See the FAQ section of the Users Manual for details.

20. I have a Windows PC and the movies stutter during playback.

Not all PCs are equal. Lower-end PCs don’t have the video horsepower to play the movies smoothly or do not have the system codecs for hardware-decoding of the video.

21. I get the following error when trying to run the 32-bit version of Dashcam Viewer: “The program can’t start because MSVCP120.dll is missing from your computer. Try reinstalling the program to fix this problem.”

You need to install the “VS2013 Redistributable Packages” on your computer. Download and install the Redistributables from here:

22. The “Satellite” view of the Map window does not show imagery or produces a “Sorry, we have no imagery here” error.

Good news! I have identified the source of this error and have corrected it in Dashcam Viewer 1.4.7 uploaded on Oct 21, 2014. The problem was a missing DLL. To fix the problem you can either redownload version 1.4.7 or download this imageformats bundle, unzip it, and move it into your Dashcam Viewer directory.

23. I have a Windows PC and got the following error when I ran Dashcam Viewer: The ordinal 4369 could not be located in the dynamic link library LIBEAY32.dll.

This is an error due to multiple version of the LIBEAY32.dll on your system. User Dennis McKay was able to fix the problem on his PC. He sent a very detailed email on how he fixed the problem:

I found an old system at work that had a lot of miscellaneous software installed on it and 17 copies of LIBEAY32.dll. None of the copies were in the c:\windows\system32 folder but were in various software installation folders. I ran dashcamviewer and received the dll error. I took the LIBEAY32.dll from OpenSSL and placed it in the c:\windows\system32 folder and dashcamviewer ran without an error. On my computer I moved the LIBEAY32.dll from SysWOW64 to System32 and mine now runs without an error. Installing the 32 bit version of OpenSSL correctly places the dll in the correct system folder.

From what I have seen and some additional reading on Microsoft TechNet it appears that most programs install the version of LIBEAY32.dll that is used in developing the software in its own folder. So there are multiple copies and because it is not a registered dll, each program uses the version it installed. I tried putting this dll into the dashcamviewer directory and it still gave the error, so it expects to see it in the c:\windows\system32 folder. I have a fair amount of software installed on all of my computers at home and work and none of them have this dll in that folder.

I don’t know why only a couple of us have had this problem or what software the other users are installing that puts this file in the system32 folder. But I don’t think you need to change the way you are programming it and include this files since statistically the error rate is inconsequential and the fix is simple. I have never run into this problem before with this library file so just chalk it up to another one of those weird things thanks to Microsoft.

Dennis

24. I don’t see any GPS data. Why?

Without more specific info it is difficult to diagnose the problem. Here are a few things to check:

1) Are you sure the GPS was ON and had established a lock on the satellites?

2) Are there any error messages displayed? Do you see any data traces in the Graphs window?

3) Make sure your 0803’s internal clock is set to the correct timezone and correct time. DCV relies on the correct timestamp of the movies to sync with the GPS data files. The GPS, your computer, and the dashcam should all have the correct time.

4) If that doesn’t work, send me a clone of your SD card that contains about 3 movies on it and I will try to diagnose the problem. It’s important that you send me an image of the SD card such that the file and folder structure is preserved. The structure should look something like that below. You can send me a zip of the SD card via https://wetransfer.com using my email address as the destination.

25. I am running Windows 7 and Dashcam Viewer shows a black screen when I try to play a movie.

Although many people have reported no issues with Windows 7 and Dashcam Viewer, a number of people have reported the ‘black screen’ issue. For that reason I no longer recommend Win7 for use with DV. I suggest a move to Windows 10, which has much fewer issues with DV. If you stick with Win7, you could try reducing the movie resolution to 720p on your dashcam’s settings, which may help, or installing the K-Lite codec pack.

If your GPS data is from a separate source than your video camera (like a Garmin GPS receiver), you can export your GPS data to GPX file (see here for format), name the gpx file with the same base name as your movie but with a .gpx extension. If the gpx file is in the same directory as the movie file, Dashcam Viewer will load it.

27. Is there a version for the iPad?

Sorry, no iPad/iPhone version is in the works. With the large movie file sizes recorded by these cameras transferring data to the iPad would be very slow anyway.

28. I have an idea for a new feature.

Great! Send it to me: john@earthshinesw.com

Due to my day-job and limited spare time I cannot guarantee your idea will be implemented promptly (or even at all). But don’t let that dissuade you. Many features currently implemented in DCV were supplied by users like yourself.

Yep, I noticed this too and have been working to understand the issue. As far as I can tell, on or around Feb 14, 2018 Google changed something with their Map service which prevents the Mac version of Dashcam Viewer from drawing anything on top of the map (markers, routes, etc.). Interestingly this only affects the Mac version– the Windows version works nominally. I have a beta version of Mac Dashcam Viewer in progress, which uses a different architecture for accessing the web services, and it also works with Google Maps. So in the future, this won’t be an issue. But for now, please use the Mapquest Map option. Sorry for the inconvenience.